HTC Brings Mid-Range Desire 600 and 800 Series to US

HTC announced today that it’s bringing its mid-range devices such as the Desire 600 and Desire 800 series to US. More specifically, they are bringing the Desire 610 and Desire 816, both of which were released earlier this year in other countries.

Both phones will come with HTC’s “BoomSound” technology along with front speakers, so the sound on these handsets should be both loud and crisp. HTC seems to be bringing its high-end sound technology to a wider range of its devices, which is a welcome development for HTC customers.

The phones come with other technologies and features from HTC’s higher end flagships, too, such as the Sense 6 software (which also implies Android 4.4 KitKat), along with Blinkfeed for a prettier newsfeed, and Zoe Highlights, which, as the name implies, highlights the best moments from a video.

There are some hardware differences between the two. The Desire 610 is a 4.7” phone, but because of the front speakers it’s noticeably taller than, for example, the 4.7” Moto X (143.1 mm vs 129.3 mm), and actually a little taller than a 5.1” Galaxy S5, too (142 mm), so that’s something to keep in mind before purchasing.

It also features a 960x540 resolution, which may be a little low, but I don’t mind it as much on lower-end phones if they're priced accordingly, especially since having a lower resolution saves some battery life. The phone also has an 8MP rear camera and a 1.3 MP front-camera, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, microSD slot supporting up to 64GB, and a 2040 mAh Li-Po battery. The processor is a quad-core Cortex A7-based Snapdragon 400 clocked at 1.2 Ghz with an Adreno 305 GPU.

The Desire 816 is bigger; it has a 5.5” screen and is 156.6 mm tall, which is taller than the 5.7” and 151.2 mm Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The difference in size is less noticeable here, though, since both are large phones, and HTC's front speakers represent a smaller portion of the phone's body.

The resolution is 1280x720, which, again, is pretty low for such a large phone, but it does lower the cost of the device and saves some battery life. The 816 comes with 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, microSD slot supporting up to 128GB, 13 MP rear camera that can shoot 1080p@30fps or 720p@60fps videos, 5 MP front-camera, and a 2,600 mAh Li-Po battery. The processor is the same Snapdragon 400, but its CPU is clocked at 1.6 Ghz.

If you’re looking to buy the Desire 816, it will be available at Virgin Mobile for $299, starting today, and at other retailers later this month. Both phones can also be ordered from the HTC site. 

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